Excerpted from “How Will You Pivot?”, by Frank LaRosa
The financial services game is changing. The question is – are advisors up for the task? The shifts occurring now in the industry are palpable. Wirehouse firms are shuffling their business models, with many turning to a reliance on banking structures that limit advisor success through narrow product and service offerings and ever-shifting compensation grids. More advisors, as a result of COVID-19 work from home measures, have become accustomed to being quasi-independent in their daily business functions, making the flexibility and financial upsides of becoming a solo practitioner even more attractive. Broker-dealers, recognizing the evolution in advisor thinking, have created even more robust advisor service offerings, and are providing varying practice model opportunities from W2 and hybrid to full independence, in order to accommodate a wider array of advisor needs.
What is of particular note with all of this industry activity; however, is the speed with which change is taking place. Advisors are transitioning at record levels and that has precipitated firms to accelerate their own shifts in order to attract and retain the best talent. Which leads to the central issue – when faced with a rapid-fire climate of industry change, how does an advisor best maintain focus and evaluate their practice and their career with clarity in order to achieve their goals? The answer is, advisors need to pivot and work on their business and not in their business by focusing on three strategic areas of analysis.
